The CES has begun and manufacturers are all set to put out their best and latest products. The most significant launch in this mega event would probably that of the Intel Core Sandy Bridge chips. As we have reported previously, this latest-generation Intel Core chip will feature under the hood of a lot of new laptops to be launched during the CES show. Taiwanese major Micro Star International (MSI) is one manufactures which has already taken the wraps off its Sandy Bridge-based laptops.

MSI has in this unveiling introduced three brand-new series of laptops- the G, F and C series. The G series being targeted for gamers, the F series for consumers looking for a balance between performance and visual appeal, and the C series for business users. We will now brief you on the various models that have been introduced.

G series

The G series laptops will include the GT780, GT680, GE620 and GR620 models. All these models come standard-fitted with the Intel Core i7 quad core (Sandy Bridge) processor. The GT780 comes with a 17.3-inch display and an nVidia GTX 500 series GPU while the GT680 gets a 15.6-inch display with an nVidia GTX 400 series GPU. The GT680 is also said to have accelerated dual SSD storage and memory expansion up to 16GB courtesy 4 SO-DIMM DDR3 memory slots. You also get MSI’s patented Turbo Drive Engine (TDE) technology built-in with the G series that helps performance buffs to overclock their processors. The audio system for the G series has been developed by MSI in collaboration with Dynaudio and will give the world's first audiophile grade audio output. What’s more, you get USB 3.0 ports standard across all models in the G series.

F series

The F series will consist of the FX420, FX620 and FX720 models, as of what is known till now. All the F-series laptops will come equipped with the second generation of the Intel Core chips, a.k.a. the Sandy Bridge chips. These chips will be complemented with Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 and Hyper-Threading technology. Graphics duties will be handled by Intel’s GMA3000 display chips for lower-end models while the higher-end models will get NVIDIA GeForce GT 500 Series cards with 1GB memory and DirectX 11 support.

C series

The C series notebooks, intended for the business class, can’t be expected to be beauty contest winners but do their job just fine. Packed in with the Sandy Bridge chips and standard USB 3.0, these laptops would be good value for money and although would not score high on the performance front, MSI says that these laptops would provide battery back-up for as long as eight hours.

Pricing and availability

MSI has promised a total of six G Series models to start selling in the first half of 2011. Priced from $1,499.99, the GT680 will reportedly begin shipping towards the end of January and the GT780 is will probably begin shipping during Q2 2011. Talking of the fashionable F series, expect it to ship sometime in Q1 this year. MSI has also promised five models in this series here before the start of the second half of 2011. The F series laptops will fetch a price of $699.99 and upwards. No information about the C series is known as of yet in this respect.